An Executive Development Plan (EDP) is a valuable planning document for enhancing the professional skills of both yourself and your team of executives. If you notice your executives’ professional growth has stalled or if your industry has rapidly changing requirements, an EDP can be vital in keeping your team focused on success, growth, and building leadership capacity in your organization.
What is an Executive Development Plan?
An EDP is a strategic planning document that outlines short- and long-term training methodologies to improve executive teams’ skills, professional development, and effectiveness as leaders. Typically personalized for each executive team member, the EDP aims to broaden their organizational perspective and deploy strategies for their departments’ growth through better leadership from within their teams.
How to Write an Executive Development Plan
Creating an EDP is an iterative process that involves multiple stakeholders. Below are the essential steps to take when writing an EDP:
- Identify Goals and Objectives: The first step is to identify key outcomes and goals for your leadership team. This helps guide your EDP towards impactful objectives and set a realistic path for attaining meaningful results.
- Evaluate Strengths and Opportunities for Improvement: Conduct a full evaluation of your organization’s leadership strengths and opportunities for improvement. This provides context for your goals and objectives and ensures the right resources and time are allocated to areas that need improvement.
- Set Realistic Timelines and Milestones: Pair your EDP with a realistic timeline and mark it with important milestones to measure progress. This helps manage the EDP’s implementation, identify progress, and flag the need for adaptation if desired results are not produced.
- Build Frameworks for Identifying Leadership Potential: Include a strong framework for identifying leadership potential within the executive team and future leadership qualities within internal departments. This helps scale your leadership team and capacity as needed.
- Establish Resources and Training Methodologies: Outline the resources and training methods that will be used as part of the process. This helps keep the plan within realistic bounds and gives guidance to stakeholders.
Measure, Analyze, and Optimize
Finally, a successful EDP needs regular review and modification based on the results. Goals should be measurable to provide a framework for analyzing and optimizing results. Professional development takes time and is most effective when tailored to individual strengths and weaknesses.